1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for transferring semiautomatically cattlehides from one hide transport conveyor to another. More specifically, it relates to an apparatus for transferring semiautomatically hides from a first transport conveyor on which the hides are carried through a series of chemical treatment baths while folded over bars which are tightly spaced and slow moving to a second conveyor on which the hides are carried through a series of mechanical operations at a rapid pace while clamped on one end and spaced a great distance apart.
2. Description of the Art
Although carrier bars and clamps, such as toggle clamps, are used in the processing of cattlehides and other materials, hides are manually assembled on the bars or clamps. There is no known apparatus that eliminates any manual operation in the transfer of a hide from a bar to a clamp. The most relevant known art is that described in Das Leder 28, 81-89, 1977 and in an abstract of the Das Leder article in JALCA 74, 140, 1979. However, in the apparatus and method described therein the hides are manually loaded onto and removed from bars. Subsequent mechanical processing does not utilize clamps. It is done by manually feeding these hides into conventional fleshing and splitting machines.